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Portrait of Louis Pasteur
Albert Edelfelt · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905)
- Date
- 1885
- Dimensions
- 154 x 126 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
This portrait shows the French scientist Louis Pasteur in his laboratory, absorbed in examining a glass jar he holds up to the light. Around him lie his notes, books and scientific instruments.
A closer look
Edelfelt chose not to paint Pasteur as a formal celebrity but at work, as a researcher in the middle of an experiment. The jar contains a piece of spinal cord from a rabbit infected with rabies, part of the experiments that led, that same year, to the first successful vaccination of a human against the disease. The dark coat, the cool light and the careful realism of the laboratory details contrast with the scientist's intense concentration. The portrait was a great success at the Salon of 1886 and was bought by the French state.